Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Or … does our brain change before we change? Or … do they occur concurrently?

You are either pondering these three questions or you may be wondering … does it matter?

To know the answer requires our gaining new knowledge. Einstein said it best “"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them." If we already knew the answer, we wouldn’t have the question! Of course!

When a question arises … any question … consider that the answer is created also in that moment … but on a higher level of awareness. This supports the Law of Polarity or opposites, which says for every question, there must be an answer; for every up … always a down, and so on. So we begin to think, we read, we ask others … all in an effort to not only understand the question, but to gain access to the answer.

Gain access … what does that mean? Is there a doorway that leads us up to the answers (or ideas that spawn the answers)? Is there a lock and key we must have in our possession to get those answers? Access to higher awareness is your gift when you are thirsty for new knowledge. It’s like a plant being thirsty for water and nutrients. Give it plain water only and it lives certainly; add to it nutrients, and it flourishes. We are supposed to be flourishing. While we don’t have petals, we do have conscious awareness. We must feed it to gain the keys to the kingdom.

The answer to the 3 questions … is YES. With nothing less than sheer abundance of any and all things – and with your perfect Faith in that lawful process – we change first, last and with our Brain.

The mere process of looking for the answer moves us higher on the ladder of awareness. Awareness is an understanding of the patterns and processes of our thinking and the ability to discard or ignore thoughts in the present moment that do not move us toward our purpose or make us happy. Why do that? Because we only hold one conscious thought in our mind at a time, we want to save that space for rich ideas that are always flowing from form, then through form (us), then back into form (idea, belief, action, results).

Bruce Lipton in the Biology of Belief explains in detail how our thoughts trigger cell sensors which cause proteins to change shape, thereby causing movement (vibration). Happy thoughts – high vibration; sad thoughts – low vibration, with matching results. When we duplicate the happy thoughts they become our habits. Same is so with the opposite, of course.

Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Shakespeare said that many years ago. Being true to yourself actually is the first step to doing anything for others. You can only give out what you have so fill up on love, joy, self respect. When you are aware of your own needs and meet those within yourself you then have that to share with others in your life.

Often people deal with burn out from doing too much and spreading their energy too thin. We live in a very fast paced world and it’s easy to just do too much and not take care of you. You are important. As a mother your patience, wisdom and understanding are dependent upon your taking care of yourself and your emotional, physical and spiritual needs.

A long bath with a good book, sitting in the back yard watching the birds, going for a long and relaxing walk are all wonderful ways to connect yourself to balance.

Buy yourself a vase full of flowers and delight in their color, texture and scent. Love yourself well.. I say that to each person I meet and for a very good reason. You will have more to share with others when you are being good to yourself.

Making sure you get food that satisfies the body, mind and spirit, rest that restores physical and mental energy, down time to restore the soul; all these fill you up with energy and the more full you are the more you have to give and the more you enjoy your life experience.

The reason so many are creating experiences they don’t enjoy is they are just plain tired, worn out, drained and that gives way to frustration. Frustration creates more to feel that way about.

Being good to yourself is the fastest way to create beauty in your life and guarantees you have plenty of love, respect and kindness to share with others.

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

By chance I came across an old college textbook on my bookshelf the other day, and have been greatly rewarded by becoming reacquainted with it. It is a book on the earliest philosophers in the Western tradition, known as the 'Presocratics' ('Presocratic' sounds very intimidating, but it really just means 'the guys who were hanging around before Socrates').

Although the Presocratics are very important, and most of them wrote important, influential books, almost none of their writings have survived today. All we have are fragments of their writings that were preserved as quotes in the books of later writers. Kind of like really, really ancient tweets! While it is disappointing to have lost so much of their work, what has survived pretty accessible for ancient philosophy. In fact, you could the entire Presocratic works in a single sitting!

In my opinion, the greatest Presocratic was an Ephesian named Heraclitus. Although a lot of his fragments are hard to follow (to be fair, they are fragments!), many of them are amazingly well-observed. It's even more amazing when you realise he wrote them 2,500 years ago!!

Heraclitus was most famous for his statement that 'you cannot step into the same river twice.' He believed that constant change, flux, and conflict are an integral part to the universe, and often used fire as a metaphor in his sayings. Although he can come across as a bit grumpy, you will find that upon reflection Heraclitus is describing an active, dynamic world where wisdom is more valuable than riches, and available to those who seek it. I find this exhilarating!

Much learning does not teach understanding.

To be temperate is the greatest virtue. Wisdom consists in speaking and acting the truth, giving heed to the nature of things.

Unless you expect the unexpected you will never find truth, for it is hard to discover and hard to attain.

You cannot step twice into the same river, for other waters and yet others go ever flowing on.

It is in changing that things find repose.

You could not discover the limits of soul, even if you traveled by every path in order to do so; such is the depth of its meaning.

Soul has its own inner law of growth.

To extinguish excessive pride is more needful than to extinguish a fire.

Dogs bark at a person they do not know.

Opposition brings concord. Out of discord comes the fairest harmony.

Donkeys would prefer hay to gold.

To God all things are beautiful, good, and right; people, on the other hand, deem some things right and others wrong.

The way up and the way down are one and the same.

In the circumference of the circle the beginning and the end are common.

The hidden harmony is better than the obvious.

People do not understand how that which is at variance with itself agrees with itself. There is a harmony in the bending back, as in the cases of the bow and the lyre.

Even sleepers are workers and collaborators in what goes on in the universe.